India opposition leader Rahul Gandhi to start 6,200-km 'justice journey'

NEW DELHI, Dec 27 (Bernama) -- India's prominent opposition leader Rahul Gandhi will start a 6,200-km tour covering 14 states to campaign for social and economic justice.

His Indian National Congress party announced on Wednesday the "Bharat Nyay Yatra" (India justice journey) will start in the remote northeastern state of Manipur on January 14 and end in the financial capital Mumbai on March 20.

The party's top decision-making body wanted Rahul to tour the country from east to west on the pattern of his earlier months-long "Bharat Jodo Yatra (India unity march), Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal told the media.

Unlike the previous September-January tour, during which Rahul walked 3,500 km from Kanyakumari in southern India to Srinagar in Kashmir, the new journey will be by bus and pass through 85 districts of various states.

Rahul, 53, will focus on interacting with the youth, women and the marginalised sections of society during the bus journey, which will also have "short stretches of walking every now and then", according to Venugopal.

It will cover the states of Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The tour is expected to serve as a mass contact programme for the Congress before the crucial national elections before May 2024.

-- BERNAMA